Curzio Malaparte (Malaparte is the antonym of Bonaparte, lit. “evil fate”) is the pseudonym of the Italian writer and journalist Kurt Erich Zuckert (1989–1957), an “inconvenient” classic of Italian literature of the last century. In 1941, having fallen out of favor with Mussolini and narrowly escaping arrest, Malaparte went to the Eastern Front as a correspondent for the Corriere della Sera. His observations and eyewitness accounts became the basis for a giant mural depicting war-torn Europe - from Stalingrad to the coast of Croatian Dalmatia. The novel "Kaput", its first and most famous part, was published in 1944, while the war was still ongoing, the second part, "Skin" (1949), was published shortly after its end.